The policy of arresting Palestinian women has been one of the most prominent systematic policies that the occupation has historically used against them, and minors have not been excluded from them. Today, the occupation continues to arrest (21) female prisoners, after the release batches that have taken place, among them a female prisoner from Gaza; where they face systematic and organized crimes in the Israeli occupation prisons and investigation centers, which have escalated in level since the date of the war of extermination, which constituted the bloodiest stage in the history of our people.

In a joint report on the occasion of International Women's Day, the Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and the Prisoners' Club highlighted the most prominent issues related to the detention conditions of female prisoners in occupation prisons, all of which fall, at various levels, under the crimes of torture, starvation, systematic medical crimes, and sexual assault at various levels. This is in addition to the repression and repeated raids on female prisoners' cells, the systematic robbery and deprivation, and the methods of psychological torture that have emerged against them from the moment of their arrest.

The Commission and the Club added that what we witnessed during the war of extermination, and what we are witnessing to this day in terms of targeting women, one of the aspects of which is arrests, does not constitute an exceptional phase, but the variable is the level of crimes that were and are being practiced against them. Since October 7, 2023, the relevant institutions have documented (490) cases of arrest among women, as the arrests of women, including minors, constituted the most prominent policies pursued by the occupation in an unprecedented manner. This data includes women who were arrested in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, as well as women from the 1948 territories, while there is no clear estimate of the number of women who were arrested from Gaza.

The report indicated that the number of female prisoners is (21), (17) of whom are still detained, including a female prisoner from Gaza, namely prisoner Siham Abu Salem, and among the female prisoners, two girls, including a girl aged (12 years), (12) mothers, a female prisoner in her third month of pregnancy, two administrative detainees, (6) teachers, a journalist who is a media student, and among the sick female prisoners, a female prisoner suffering from cancer, and there remain two female prisoners detained since before October 7, 2023, and the occupation still refuses to include them in the exchange deals.

Arrest of women

The journey of detention for Palestinian women and the harsh conditions they face does not begin at the moment of arrest. Some of the female prisoners are from families that have faced repeated arrests, continuous raids on family homes, and the targeting of other family members through detention, arrest, or murder. Over the months following the war of extermination, the issue of women being held hostage emerged, affecting dozens of women, with the aim of pressuring a family member targeted by the occupation to surrender. This included wives of prisoners, martyrs, and mothers, some of whom were elderly and over seventy years old. It should be noted that this policy also affected other groups, not just women. Their detention as hostages was accompanied by abuse and threats that reached the point of threatening to kill the targeted son or husband. This is in addition to the attacks they were subjected to during the arrest process, in addition to the acts of vandalism that affected their homes, the terrorizing of their children and sons, and the confiscation of their money and gold jewelry.

The majority of the female prisoners who were arrested were subjected to beatings, abuse, and torture. Numerous testimonies from female prisoners reflect the level of brutality meted out to them. The report asserts that while these measures were not exceptional, they were unprecedented in their level.

The report included testimonies of women who had been arrested:

“Upon my arrest, I was beaten by occupation soldiers at a checkpoint, kicked in the stomach, and immediately chains were placed on my hands, I was blindfolded, and taken to an interrogation center, due to the severity of the beating I was subjected to with rifles, all over my body, which led to a part of my body being exposed as my clothes were torn. Later, after a period of my arrest, I remained detained in the interrogation center for three hours, then I was taken to Al-Maskobiyya Prison and remained there for a month. During the first period of my arrest, as a result of the beating, this led to bleeding during my menstrual period, which lasted for about 20 days. Then I was transferred to Hasharon Prison, where I was detained in a cell by myself. That night, I was not given food, and the cell was very dirty, with a very thin mattress without a cover. After a night had passed, I was transferred to Al-Damon Prison.

“I was arrested at midnight and taken to a settlement, where I stayed until 7:00 PM the next day, without food or drink. My feet and hands were tied, and I was blindfolded. The whole time, the soldiers stood near me and mocked me. Then they played music very loudly to prevent me from sleeping. They asked me to stand and sit down several times, while they mocked me, laughed, and cursed me with obscene words. The whole time, they were saying death to Islam in a loud voice. On the second day, I was transferred to Hasharon Prison, where I stayed for three days. When I refused to be strip-searched, the female prison guard electrocuted me and forced me to undergo a strip-search. Then, I was taken to a dirty cell. Later, I was transferred to the Petah Tikva interrogation center, where I was hung on a chair. At the end of the interrogation, they forced me to sign papers whose contents I did not know.”

Hasharon Prison Station and Strip Searches

Hasharon prison is a station of abuse and torture, before the transfer of female prisoners to Damon prison. All the testimonies we obtained from female prisoners confirmed that they were subjected to strip searches in Hasharon prison, and were detained in harsh and difficult conditions, in a dirty cell unfit for human life. This is in addition to many of them being beaten, when they refused to be searched. There, the female prisoners are detained for a day or several days, and are given inedible bites of food inside a cell with a very thin, dirty mattress. Here we refer to one of the testimonies about Hasharon prison.

“I was transferred to Hasharon prison, where I was assaulted in the waiting room. One of the prison guards hit me with keys, leaving clear marks on my hand. I stayed one night in Hasharon prison, but it was the worst night of my life. I was detained in a cell with cameras. I was unable to relieve myself and they did not even allow me to relieve myself anywhere else. This was in addition to the voices of the criminal prisoners, who kept screaming. At night, they brought me a blanket that smelled strongly of urine. At five in the morning, they ordered me to take it out of the cell under the pretext of cleaning, but they took away the mattress and blanket, forcing me to sit on my shoes.”

Policy of plunder and deprivation

The prison administration has turned all the needs of prisoners, including female prisoners, into a tool of deprivation and robbery. They have been deprived of all their needs, and even if they are provided with them, they are very limited and become a tool for collective punishment. This includes all needs, including sanitary pads, which the prison administration has used as a tool for punishment on many occasions. The policies of deprivation and robbery are part of the policies of psychological torture, and this applies to other levels, including depriving them of appropriate clothing in summer and winter. Summer temperatures turn into a tool for torture by depriving female prisoners of appropriate clothing, as well as not providing ventilation tools. Winter also turns into a tool for torture by depriving them of sufficient clothing, blankets, and heating tools. All of these details take place at a time when female prisoners are facing collective isolation operations, with them being deprived of visiting their families, like thousands of prisoners since the beginning of the war. This is in addition to the restrictions imposed on legal teams during their visits. These are examples of the policies of robbery and deprivation to which female prisoners are exposed on an instant basis. We mention here that the numbers of female prisoners greatly affect the reality of detention conditions, especially if the numbers are large and the rooms are crowded, as was the reality before the release batches that took place in January and last February, where their number reached (86) female prisoners before the release batches, and at times their number reached more than 100 female prisoners.

incursion policy

The raids on the cells of female prisoners have escalated significantly during the past months, specifically after September 2024. Although the period preceding this period also witnessed repeated raids, they were not at the same pace, and this intensified in an unprecedented manner against them, as the prison administration turned every detail in the prison structure into a tool for abuse and torture against them. In October 2024, more than one raid was recorded against female prisoners, and the raids by the repression units continued, as the female prisoners protested the continued isolation of one of the female prisoners, and the female prisoners returned a meal. In response, the so-called “Yamaz” units stormed the cells of the female prisoners, repressed them, and proceeded to search them naked, and all their spare clothes were seized from them, and they were forced to be satisfied with only one change of clothes. Each female prisoner had to come forward after being searched and take only one change of clothes, then enter the bathrooms during the break, and they were detained. In the bathrooms until the "Yamaz" unit searched the cell, and during that operation, they seized everything inside the prisoners' cells, including shoes.

sexual assaults

One of the most notable crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian women, including female prisoners, is sexual assault, which includes harassment, strip searches, and threats of rape. This is in addition to the United Nations' official statement announcing the existence of credible reports of female detainees from Gaza being subjected to rape.

The organizations were able to collect testimonies from female prisoners who were released, specifically during the releases that took place in November of last year, as well as testimonies from female prisoners inside prisons, and from women whose relatives faced arrest and persecution, in which they confirmed that they were subjected to a series of sexual assaults.

Hasharon Prison, which served as a temporary detention center for female prisoners before their transfer to Damon Prison, witnessed strip searches, to which the majority of female prisoners were subjected, according to dozens of testimonies documented by institutions, in addition to the humiliating and degrading detention conditions to which they were subjected, and the attacks, including severe beatings.

(In a testimony documented by the institutions for one of the female prisoners who was arrested after October 7, she confirmed that during the arrest and investigation process she was subjected to sexual and verbal assault and harassment, as one of the soldiers touched her head and feet in an inappropriate manner, and cursed her with obscene terms and threatened her more than once. The soldiers threw cigarette butts and food scraps at her to humiliate her. The prisoner was also beaten more than once by the occupation soldiers, which caused her pain throughout her body, and she was not provided with any treatment.)

Among the testimonies documented was the testimony of one of the female prisoners, who said: “I and other female prisoners arrived at Hasharon Prison. They took us to a cell with a floor full of water, and there was a bathroom that was not fit for use. Then we were transferred to another cell where we were subjected to a strip search by female prison guards. One of the prison guards hit me in the face, after I was severely beaten during my arrest.”

Arrest on grounds of freedom of opinion and expression

Arrests have escalated on the grounds of freedom of opinion and expression, or what the occupation claims is "incitement" on social media. The vast majority of women arrested after the war were detained on grounds of "incitement" or administrative detention under the pretext of a so-called "secret file." Today, the majority of female prisoners are detained on grounds of incitement, in addition to two female prisoners held administratively. Recently, the occupation has primarily targeted the arrest of female educational cadres, with at least eight arrests of female teachers recorded, six of whom remain detained on grounds of "incitement." Since the war, we have not witnessed an escalation in the targeting of female teachers like we have witnessed recently.

71 female prisoners released as part of the exchange deal

The release of female prisoners in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement marked a turning point in the issue of female prisoners. This was in addition to the releases that took place in November 2023, when 71 female prisoners were released in the first phase, which took place during January and February 2025. However, the occupation did not stop targeting women through arrest operations. It has once again escalated its targeting of women, through arrest operations, hostage detention, and field investigations.

The Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Prisoners' Club confirmed, based on testimonies and statements obtained from Palestinian female prisoners and detainees, that the Israeli occupation continues to violate the rights of Palestinian female prisoners in detention and interrogation centers and prisons, in hospitals and medical clinics, and at checkpoints and barriers. These violations affect all categories of Palestinian women, including teachers, students, mothers, girls, and others.

The prisoners' institutions recommended that the United Nations and all member states pressure the occupying state to respect and abide by international law and international human rights law, and implement the Convention against Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Contracting States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention called for an end to the physical and psychological abuse perpetrated by occupation soldiers during the arrest of Palestinian women, their unlawful detention in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the practice of physical and psychological torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian women during interrogation.

They also renewed their call on the international human rights system to move forward with taking effective decisions to hold the occupation leaders accountable for the war crimes they continue to commit against our people, and to impose sanctions on the occupation that would place it in a state of clear international isolation, and restore the human rights system to its fundamental role for which it exists, and put an end to the terrifying state of impotence that it has been afflicted with during the war of extermination, and to end the state of exceptional immunity that the old colonial powers granted to the occupying state, considering it above accountability, accountability, and punishment.